1941 42

A Memory of Auchterarder.

I, with my three brothers and mother, lived for a while in an apartment near the top end of the town. My father was in the Argyle and Sutherland's. Later we moved out of town to a house called 'Pothill' where my mother was dairymaid and general farm worker. The house was was, I think, just North on the Perth road. We certainly went to the same school. I was six.
It was at Pot Hill late on a December evening that the wee red and black post office van arrived with the dreaded telegram to state that my oldest brother Sandy, a sailor on HMS Audacity, was missing in action. A letter later came to confirm he was missing, presumed killed.
Sandy had left his beloved piano accordion on his last home leave, a premonition perhaps?
There was no respite for mother who still had to get up and milk next morning.
Near the infant school I attended I recall we had to walk past a POW camp. Most of the inmates I remember worked by day on farms in the area.
There was a pond at the bottom of a field near the North road that froze over and was a great skating arena. I seem to remember that only the privileged few had skates. The majority of the kids simply used the pond as a long 'slide'.
On a visit to Scotland in 1994 we searched for Pothill without success in the short time we had there.